The Political Lives of Migrants: Perspectives from Africa

Introduction

Refugees and other migrants continue to arrive in new places all across the world. Their reception, long-term prospects, and lives in their new homes remain one of the most pressing socio-political issues of our times. What about the migrant in all of this? How do they see their life, role, and political agency? Migration research has thus far under-conceptualized and under-researched political migrant agency, especially from a Global South perspective and in interaction with states and non-state actors. PolMig aims to redress this gap and combine it with a commitment to tackle global inequalities in knowledge production.

Research Focus

Focusing on Africa, PolMig considers how migrants define political agency, enabled or disabled by politicization processes of belonging in postcolonial state contexts. Drawing on this research, PolMig advances an Afrocentric understanding of political migrant agency with global relevance.

Migrant Trajectories

The research will consider the effects of different migrant trajectories on the self-defined understanding of political agency, including:

1. Refugee or other migrant
2. Transregional or intraregional
3. In country of destination, transit, or return to origin

This analysis will be conducted along intersectional principles of gender, class, and race. PolMig uses pioneering research methods to do so, including migrant agency diaries and theatre workshops.

Contribution to Literature

PolMig bridges the literature on migrant agency and migration states while contributing an Afrocentric perspective to the field. The Afrocentric perspective is ensured through a process of collaboration and exchange, centering the continent empirically and epistemologically.

Impact and Relevance

The innovative project will have significant scientific impact by addressing an interdisciplinary research gap and committing to highlighting and tackling knowledge inequalities. It also offers highly relevant policy contributions to an urgent societal question.